Chocolate Ganache Cake

It's cake time again!!! This cake is perfect for all the people in your life who LOVE super sweet treats!  If you're looking for something over-the-top with a high sweet intensity you have come to the right place!  Although the outside of my cake may not have looked as pristine as I would have liked it to; I assure you, it was delicious!

Cake Ingredients:
3 cups packed brown sugar
3/4 cup canola oil
3 eggs
2 2/3 cup flour
2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoons of vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup of milk
1 1/2 cup of water
1 1/8 cup cocoa powder

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Oil and flour 3 10 inch round cake pans (or line them with parchment paper) and set aside.
2. With an electric mixer combine brown sugar and oil.  Turn the mixer onto a low speed and gradually add the eggs.  Let the mixture continue to beat while you mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl.  Set the flour mixture aside.
3. Place cocoa powder into another separate bowl.  Bring the 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil.  Once water is boiling, pour the water over the cocoa powder and whisk together until smooth.
4. To the oil and egg mixture, mix in the flour mixture as well as the milk and vanilla; alternating the milk with the flour mixture.  Once all of the flour mixture, the milk, and the vanilla is added; Set the mixer to low and slowly pour in the cocoa and water combination.
5. Pour the finished batter into the three pans evenly.  Make sure that you have coated the pans with enough flour or parchment paper so they do not stick when trying to remove the cakes after baking.
6. Place the cake batter filled pans into the oven and bake for about 28 to 35 minutes; or until toothpick comes out clean.
7.  Take cakes out of the oven and allow to cool for about ten to fifteen minutes before trying to remove from the pan.

Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients: 
3 cups of confectioner's sugar
1 cup butter (softened)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon butter extract
1 to 2 tablespoon heavy whipping cream

1. Blend together sugar and butter.
2. Add the vanilla, butter extract, and whipping cream.
3. Taste test to make sure the flavor has an equal amount of sugar to butter.  The original recipe that I used did not call for butter extract; but I noticed that a lot of the buttercream frosting recipes tend to have too strong of a sugar flavor, so I tweaked it a little... Ha. Of course.  It all depends on how you want your frosting to taste.

Ganache Glaze

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup of semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 tablespoon light corn syrup
3/4 cup heavy cream

1. In a bowl combine the chocolate chips and light corn syrup.
2. Bring heavy cream to a boil.  Once boiling, pour over top of the chocolate chips and corn syrup.  Stir until chips are melted and the mixture is smooth.


Assembly:

The assembly of the cake is pretty simple.  Simply layer the cakes with frosting in between each layer.  Cake 1, frosting, cake 2, frosting, cake 3, frosting.  Once the three cakes are stacked on top of each other; frost the entire cake with the buttercream frosting.  Place in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes to chill.  Once chilled, bring the cake back out and pour the Ganache glaze over the top.  Allow to run down the sides and either spread over the entire cake, or simply allow to run over the sides. Let sit about 10 minutes to allow the Ganache get a bit cooled down and settled.  Cut, serve and enjoy!

                      

I did make two mistakes when I made this cake that I realize were pretty dumb! Haha... First off, I did not allow the cakes to cool completely before frosting them (I was in a bit of a hurry); Cakes take patience; I'm just a fast mover!
Secondly, I did not allow the Ganache to cool down a bit before I poured it over the cake; which caused the frosting to melt a bit; ending with the cake looking sloppy.

Although the cake does not look the best or the most beautiful; it tasted great!  As I mentioned before, it was very sweet!  A little goes a long way!  Next time I make the cake I may try just 1 layer instead of 2; to make the recipe and cook time a little more quick.  I will also frost it better with the buttercream and then just allow the Ganache to run over the cake instead of trying to spread it out.  This cake does take some time to make; and patience is a virtue that I obviously need to work  on when it comes to baking!
Good luck!

Cake Anyone???

Bavarian Chocolate Cream Cake

Making cakes has never been one of my fortes, probably because I like to mess with recipes too much!  I had to tell myself over an over not to tweak the recipe and to be precise.. Which was really hard!  When baking cakes or really any type of baked good you have to make sure to measure everything!!! Otherwise you may turn out with flat cakes, hard pastries or lumpy creams.... But let me tell you, my willpower paid off this time!!  No lumps, no flat or hard cake and it even tasted great!

I will tell you, this recipe is a process and took about 2 - 3 hours in total time to make (baking time included).  I found the recipe online and I found out that it was adapted from the Better Homes and Garden  magazine.  Here is the recipe if you're interested in making it - remember there are tons of steps and 3 separate items to make before assembly: The cake, the Bavarian cream and the buttercream frosting.

Cake Recipe:

3/4 cup butter, softenend       3 eggs

2 cups flour                            3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda                  3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt                            2 cups sugar

2 tsp. vanilla                           1 1/2 cups of milk

1. Grease and flour 2 eight or nine inch round cake pans.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheight.  

2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 5 min.).  Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition (about 1 min. total).  Beat in vanilla.  

4. Alternately add flour and milk to the mixture, beating on low speed just until combined after each addition.  Beat on medium to high for 20 more seconds.  

Cooling Cakes

5. Spread batter evenly in each of the prepared pans so you have two nice cakes.  Bake in preheated oven for about 35 minutes (mine took about 40).  *Make sure to test the center with a toothpick until it comes out clean!*  

6. Remove from ovens and let cool for 10 minutes.  Remove from pans and cool.  

Bavarian Cream Filling

3/4 heavy cream     1 (1/4 oz.) envelope unflavored geltain

Whipped Cream

3 egg yolks             1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

1 cup milk               1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1) In a large bowl, whip the cream until it stands in soft peaks.  Chill until needed.

2) Soak the gelatin in 2/3 cup cold water for 10 minutes.  In the mean time, beat the egg yolks with the confectioners' sugar in a large metal bowl until blended and it has a thick, creamy consistency. Set aside.

3) Bring the milk and the vanilla to a boil in a saucepan, stirring often so the milk does not burn.  Remove from the heat and slowly pour the milk into the egg yolk mixture, stirring constantly.  

Stirring over boiling pot of water

4) Place the egg and milk mixture in the metal bowl over top of a gently boiling pot of water.  Continue to stir until the mixture coats the spoon.  

5) After removing from over-top of the boiling water, place the metal bowl on top of ice cold water in a separate bowl.  Gradually stir in the dissolved gelatin.  Make sure the mixture is lump-free.  Continue stirring until the cream starts to cool and stiffen (about 5 min.).  

6) Fold in the whipped cream and place mixture in fridge until ready to use.

All finished cream after stirring over ice water

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting - Okay... So I lied a little... I did tweak something... But not because I wanted to... I HAD to do it because it wasn't turning out right... So ha!

1 stick of butter, very soft but not melted!

1 tsp. Vanilla extract

2 Tbsp. heavy cream

3 - 5 cups confectioners' sugar

1. In a large bowl, beat the butter, vanilla and cream for 30 seconds. 

2. Gradually add in the sugar, beating constantly and occasionally stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl; until the frosting reaches desired consistency.  

Okay, so those were the directions for the frosting... Well, I added about 3 cups of sugar and it was extremely thick.  It also tasted like pure sugar!  So I decided to make it a little more thin, by adding milk.  I also wanted more butter flavor since all I could taste was sugar, so I added probably a teaspoon of butter extract. 

This is the part YOU get to play with!  Depending on how you like your frosting, thick or creamy, you can add as much or as little milk as you want, but be careful!  Add it slowly because it has a HUGE affect on the frosting.  A little goes a long way!

Bottom layer filled with Bavarian Cream

Now that you have your three parts for the cake, it's time to assemble!  

1. Place one of the cooled cakes on the platter/ dish that you will be serving the cake on.  

2. Use a sharp spoon, knife or mellonballer to gently remove 1/4 inch from the top of the cake - avoid scrapping of the very edge - what you want to create is a very shallow well across the whole area of the cake that the Bavarian cream can fill without being squished out by the top cake.  

3. Spread the Bavarian cream in the well, taking care not to drag to much.  

Finished frosted cake, decorate with your own personal touch!

4. Place the top layer on the cream and position to be in line with the bottom cake.  Ice the whole thing with the buttercream and decorate as desired!!

5. Place in fridge until ready to serve! Enjoy!

All done!!

One slice of cake comin' right up! 

It was delicious!

I hope you enjoy this cake just as much as I did!! Let me know how it went and be sure to ask questions if you have them!